Universitat de València

The URBAN VEGETABLE GARDENS OF BENIMACLET are an initiative of the Neighbourhood Association of Benimaclet, thanks to which, with the participation and effort of all gardeners a land which was intended to be a public park has been recovered. This land was abandoned 15 years ago, and the association has convinced his owner to give the land to the City Council of Valencia for using it as an urban vegetable garden. WHY HAVE WE PROPOSE THIS INITIATIVE? For the benefits that generates for the city and the neighbourhood - We have recovered a piece of the vegetable gardens of Benimaclet, whose origin is the vegetable garden and that now is separated by the “Ronda Norte” (Northern main road). -We also have recovered the irrigation ditches system, mainly destroyed by the city. In our case we have reused a strand of the Acequia del Mestalla (Mestalla ditch). - We have create a meeting place for neighbours, an exchange place for work and excitement, far from competitive and money relations. - We have created inside the vegetable gardens a common area managed and maintained by the “gardeners” but open to all neighbourhood, where to develop the activities that the neighbours propose. -We have create composting points in all the vegetable gardens. 60 families or collectives will recycle the organic waste in the neighbourhood. For the benefits that creates for the gardeners - We have promoted the self-consumption of fresh products and food sovereignty, providing a new perspective on food safety, the use of chemical products and the care of land. -The community work of the land generates positive psychological, therapeutic and social effects (well being feelings, social integrations, sense of community...) - It is an alternative proposal of environmental and nutrition education available to the educational centres of the neighbourhood and a commitment for ecological agriculture in a neighbourhood with deep agricultural traditions. - We promote cross relations among neighbours, specially between generations. For the rights exercised and the possibilities opening up - It is a community process of construction of a social, cohesive, democratic and inclusive, supported by citizen participation. - It is a collective action from the local to higher levels of politic and economic action. The neighbours have decided not wait for political promises and urban deadlines and they have act for recovering a common area needed for the neighbourhood. - It portrays collective production of knowledge and performance of horizontal learning, through: training courses on agriculture, exchange of experiences, seeds, proposal of initiatives on the use of common areas, etc. - It contributes to claim the right to a decent life of the neighbours of Benimaclet, allowing them to become real subjects of the transforming actions of the neighbourhood.